Back in October, I wrote about New Mexico’s two newly designated national wildlife refuges — areas that in addition to creating great outdoor recreational opportunities for New Mexico communities, protect valuable habitat for the willow flycatcher. Well, the flycatcher is on a roll. Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 200 thousand acres along 1,227 miles of river as protected critical habitat for this endangered bird. The newly protected acres — in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada — expand upon the existing 730 miles of river that were designated as protected for this endangered bird in 2005.

Jemez River, New Mexico. Credit: spotzilla/Flickr

The Southwestern willow flycatcher is a small brown and gray bird that eats berries, seeds and — true to its name — flying insects. The flycatcher winters in Central America, but come April or May, it returns home to breed in the riparian forests of Arizona, New Mexico and southern California, Utah and Nevada. These streamside forest ecosystems are essential to the flycatcher’s successful breeding, but the bird has lost more than 90 percent of its historical habitat due to dams, livestock grazing and urban sprawl, among other causes. Listed as endangered in 1995, the bird’s prospects have faced another blow as severe drought of the past two years has left its habitat even more vulnerable.

One of the best ways to help with the latter problem is to reforest streams’ banks. American Forests has been working with WildEarth Guardians to plant 100,000 willows, aspen and other trees along streams in the headwaters of the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico, restoring areas damaged by grazing, improving water quality and restoring nesting habitat for the flycatcher.

The flycatcher had some victories in 2012 and is off to a good start in 2013. Let’s hope that with these improvements to its habitat, we start seeing recovered populations of this little bird in the years ahead.

For years, one of my holiday gifts to my wildlife-loving brother has been a wall calendar featuring gorgeous photography of wolves, polar bears or anything else that really pops that year. This year’s calendar was “Wild Cats,” featuring the biggest and baddest felines around. I bought it with a little bit of a heavy heart, though, knowing that wild cat populations around the world are severely threatened. Little did I expect that a new report would give some hope to big cat lovers everywhere.

A decade ago, American Forests Global ReLeaf partnered with a number of Russian agencies to plant Korean pines to help the Amur, or Siberian, tiger. Found only in the Russian Far East and a few areas of China and Korea, the Siberian tiger was almost extinct by the middle of the 20th century, at less than 100 tigers left in the wild. Today, the species population has risen to between 350 and 500, leaving it still endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

Much of the tiger’s woes last century came from big game hunting, and while poaching can still be an issue, the challenge it faces today is habitat loss. As Korean pine trees have become more desirable around the world for their pine nuts and the oil they produce, logging has begun taking a toll on the Siberian tiger’s habitat and that of its prey. American Forests reforested 370 acres of Russia with 130,000 Korean pines in the early 2000s to help the tigers.

Two years ago, Russia listed the Korean pine in CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in an effort to make illegal logging efforts more difficult to help preserve habitat for the tiger. Also in 2010, Russia hosted the first International Tiger Conservation Forum, in which 13 countries containing tiger habitat committed to doubling the animal’s population by 2022. To help this effort along, in October 2012, Russia established a new wildlife refuge, designed to create a corridor along the Russia-China border that is considered to be critical tiger habitat. Well done!

While the world’s tiger populations still have a ways to go, this good news from Russia — and India and Thailand, which were also mentioned in the new report — is a positive step for such a majestic animal that I hope is roaming the forests for generations to come.

As most people celebrated the New Year with confetti and champagne, Congress was on Capitol Hill trying to reach a last-minute agreement. The New Year’s negotiations finally ended when House Republicans agreed to a deal passed in the Senate, which was pulled together by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). But even though Congress reached an agreement, there is still a long road ahead.

The decision on budget sequestration has been rescheduled for two months from now. Congress will also face the big question about whether or not to raise the debt ceiling in February or March. Such measures may provide short-term answers and relief for the economy, but there’s still the underlying issue Congress needs to address: how to shrink the gap between revenues and expenditures.

Perhaps a new year will provide a fresh outlook for Congress, especially with the newly elected members arriving on Capitol Hill this week. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months, as the new Congress begins to tackle these big decisions on the national debt and economy.

People like what we do here at American Forests because they love the forests we protect. It’s no surprise that a photo paying tribute to one of America’s most iconic forests — the coastal redwood forest of Redwood National Park — attracted so much attention. Colossal beauties like these are a BIG part of why we do what we do.

9. Partnering With Fike

Coming in at number nine is a story of environmental responsibility from the corporate world. The announcement that industrial manufacturer Fike would be partnering with American Forests to plant trees to offset carbon emissions from discharges of their clean agent fire suppression system — and then some — was welcome news to many.

In August, we asked friends and fans to vote for us to be part of the Subaru “Share the Love” event. In the end, we didn’t win, but we sure did feel the love. Thanks for all your support!

6. Urban Forests Video

We could go on and on about the benefits of urban forests, but much like science class back in middle school, sometimes a video is more fun.

Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo: Jeffrey Pott/Flickr

5. Blue Ridge Mountains

Our 2012 Global ReLeaf projects ranged far and wide, but Facebook friends were especially taken by Jeffrey Pott’s gorgeous shot of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the story of the longleaf pine we’re working with the National Wild Turkey Federation to restore there.

4. Olympic National Park’s Anniversary

As one reader put it, “Olympic National Park is beautiful and for anyone who wants to feel as though they are the only person on Earth, a sojourn in the rainforest will give you that rare, precious feeling.”

3. Smokey Bear’s Birthday

You joined us in wishing Smokey Bear a very happy birthday as he turned 68 on August 9. Smokey — and the U.S. Forest Service — have certainly learned a lot about how to best protect our forests since the character made his first appearance back in 1944. But one thing that’s remained the same is the lovable bear’s commitment to teaching us all how to responsibly enjoy our time in the forest.

At American Forests, we feel a special affinity for dear Smokey as we’ve been fighting similar battles against intense forest fire ourselves. We think the bear would approve of our appeal to Secretary Vilsack to use the FLAME Act to fight wildfires as intended, for example.

People love big trees! You proved it again in September as you joined us in our countdown to the release of the fall National Register of Big Trees. We speculated whether the Patrick Henry osage-orange would keep its crown (it did) and marveled at the Cincinnati shingle oak, but the tree that really captured peoples’ hearts this year was the Seven Sisters champion live oak in Louisiana.

The list ends as it began — as a testament to everyone’s love for our nation’s forests. We wished the National Park Service a happy birthday with some photo albums of some of the many amazing parks, including the most visited national park — Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

From the “most wonderful time of the year” to maybe the most dreaded: holiday clean up.

It’s estimated that each year, more than 25 million live Christmas trees decorate people’s homes, businesses and other establishments during the holiday season. That’s a lot of pine needles! These trees represent just a fraction — seven percent — of the 350 million Christmas trees growing on farms throughout the U.S., and more trees are planted by farmers than are used each year: The University of Illinois reports that one to three seedlings are planted for every tree harvested.

Mulching Christmas trees. Credit: Gwydion M. Williams/Flickr

But what happens to the harvested trees once their yuletide job is done? In many communities across the country, they get put to work again — just in a different form.

For instance, in New York City, the Department of Sanitation has already instituted its annual curbside pickup program, which simply requires residents to remove all ornamentation from the tree (tinsel, stands, ornaments, etc.) and place it on the curb for pickup. The non-bagged trees are then collected by the city, chipped and made into compost, which is used to provide nutrients to the Big Apple’s many parks, gardens and sports fields. This is a fairly common practice in municipalities across the country, but some other places get even more creative.

A quick internet search should be able to help you find the tree-cycling program in your area.

And while you’re thinking about trees, think about heading over to our Donate page to help us continue to protect and plant forests and trees. You have a few more days to get those tax-deductible gifts in before we welcome 2013.

Have you ever been strolling through the park and suddenly been hit by with a sense of clarity or the solution to a problem you didn’t even know you were thinking about? Or said to yourself, “I need some fresh air,” just as you were on the verge of throwing in the towel on a difficult task?

Some of the best thinking and creating takes place in nature. NPS photo by Michael Quinn.

Past research has shown that exposure to nature helps with attention — an effect known as the Attention Restoration Theory — making outdoor playtime important for development. David Strayer, a cognitive scientist at the University of Utah, wanted to test whether exposure to nature had similar effects on higher-level cognitive tasks, specifically creative problem solving. Based on personal experience, he hypothesized an emphatic “yes” answer to his question and teamed up with outdoor leadership program provider Outward Bound to test his theory. Their tool was the Remote Associates Test — an established test of creative problem solving that will seem familiar to anyone who’s played the game Taboo. (Wilderness adventure and Taboo? I’m starting to wish I’d been a participant in this study!) Half of the 56 participants took the test before heading out into the great outdoors and the other half took it four days into their trip, with the wilds of Alaska, Colorado and Maine as the setting.

Not surprisingly, those who took the test four days into the trip did better, but what may surprise you is just how much better they were able to problem solve: Those four days of immersion in the natural environment increased problem-solving success by 50 percent!

While it’s true that such research could have far-reaching implications for our education system, work structure and other institutions, it also suggests a much more easy-to-enact change: get outside more. You don’t have to be heading out on a three-week trek into the wilderness to take time out from your electronic devices and take a walk outdoors — whether outdoors means the Alaskan wilderness or a nearby city park. The science just keeps piling up: Nature is good for you.

For today’s post, we’d like to give our readers a fun three-minute break. If you enjoy these short videos about the benefits of urban forests, please share them with your friends and tell your city council how much your neighborhood trees mean to you!

Urban Forests Cool Our Cities

Trees and greenspaces in cities cool our cities, reducing heating and cooling costs and making time outdoors more pleasant, but often this benefit is forgotten in the midst of other municipal concerns. Contact your city council or mayor’s office to tell them how important trees are in your city.

Urban Forests Clean Our Air

Trees and greenspaces in cities clean our air, reducing smog and pollution, but often this benefit is forgotten in the midst of other municipal concerns. Contact your city council or mayor’s office to tell them how important trees are in your city.

Urban Forests Create Happy Cities

Trees and greenspaces in cities create a sense of calm and community, reducing stress, but often this benefit is forgotten in the midst of other municipal concerns. Contact your city council or mayor’s office to tell them how important trees are in your city.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service released its major, long-term assessment of the current conditions, trends and future projections for our nation’s forests and rangelands. Known as the 2010 Resources Planning Act Assessment, or simply the RPA assessment, this document — and the many technical reports on which it is based — contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in our forests and rangelands and the services and benefits they provide to society. In 1974, Congress mandated the preparation of an RPA assessment every 10 years, and each report’s job is to make projections looking out 50 years as an early warning system on emerging issues for managers and policymakers.

The 2010 report is the 5th RPA assessment published by the agency, and it has taken an innovative, technically-sophisticated and, I might say, bold approach to its mandate. While there are many issues and findings that I could discuss, I will focus on three items that caught my attention in my initial review of the report.

A new future scenarios approach to the report: The 2010 report takes a fundamentally different approach than earlier reports to help address climate change and provide a coherent framework for assessing future outcomes across various resources, such as forests, water, wildlife and carbon. The report selected a set of comprehensive global scenarios that had been developed and used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide global context and quantitative linkages between American and global trends. The various scenarios include projections for population, economic activity, climate and bioenergy.

New tree canopy cover data and analysis in the forest resources section of the report: While I’ve been very aware of tree canopy cover data for urban forest inventories and analysis, I have not been aware of its growing acceptance as a major set of data for discussion within the RPA assessment. The inclusion of this data enriches and expands the discussion about forests and allows the use of new technology tools to develop and present important spatial information, such as how forests in certain places might be affected by heat and drought.

Grand Junction, Colorado. Credit: Ethan Lofton (ELeaf)/Flickr

A significantly expanded analysis and discussion of urban forests: The 2010 report provides greater information about urban forests, including a thoughtful discussion about the dynamics of urban growth. As urban areas expand into rural forest areas, traditional forests will be diminished, but urban forests — or the potential for establishing and managing urban forests — will increase. The report also highlights a new — or at least quite recent — perspective from the Forest Service on urban forests that reflects their significance for our growing urban populations: “Urban forests will become increasingly important for providing a range of ecosystem service to urban populations.”

This is a perspective American Forests heartily agrees with, which is why we’ve spent the last year studying various cities in the U.S. and how they are using their urban forests to the benefit of the city and its residents — thanks in part to a grant from the U.S. Forest Service. Over the next year, we plan on expanding our Urban Forests program even more and look forward to continuing to discuss the importance that urban forests will play in our lives.

Is anyone else feeling a little overwhelmed these days between tragedies in the news and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season? I know I am, so instead of delving into another new report on the direness that climate change could bring, I thought we would take a moment to just appreciate the beauty of forests and nature to the tune of a quote from artist, poet and writer Kahlil Gibran.

IN EVERY WINTER’S HEART

Credit: mf.lane/Flickr

THERE IS A QUIVERING SPRING.

Credit: Bill Weaver (g'pa bill)/Flickr

AND BEHIND THE VEIL OF EACH NIGHT

Credit: Tom Check (tombothetominator)/Flickr

THERE IS A SMILING DAWN.

Credit: Jodi Womack/Flickr

I hope everyone is able to take a moment this holiday season and appreciate the beauty in the little and big things around us everyday.